BORDERLAND

State fills gap in funding for widening of I-75

3/26/2014

Funds not needed for a phase of an I-90 reconstruction project in Cleveland will be used instead to plug a budget gap for the upcoming I-75 widening between Perrysburg and Findlay.

While adding a third lane to I-75 between its junctions with I-475/ U.S. 23 and U.S. 68/ State Rt. 15 was originally forecast to cost $366.5 million, detailed design work has bumped up that estimate to $434.8 million.

But most of that $68.3 million difference can be covered by $67 million left over when a project to replace the existing I-90 Inner Belt Bridge in Cleveland came in under budget. The Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission approved the transfer Monday.

Steve Faulkner, a spokesman at ODOT headquarters in Columbus, said funds also could have been drawn from the department’s standard fuel-tax revenue stream to make up the difference.

Theresa Pollick, an ODOT spokesman in Bowling Green, said contracts for the I-75 work are likely to be awarded in late April or early May, with construction starting in late spring.